Financial time series prediction using exogenous series and combined neural networks

Time series forecasting have been a subject of interest in several different areas of research such as: meteorology, demography, health, computer and finance. Since it can be applied to various practical problems in real world, techniques to predict time series have been a topic of increasing research activities, especially in the financial sector that has a great interest in the forecast of the stock market. In this article, we are interested in the forecast of the time series related to the Brazilian oil company, Petrobras (PETR4). A methodology based on information obtained from exogenous series was used in combination with a neural network to predict the PETR4 stock series. Exogenous series were selected by analyzing the correlation between the series with the Petrobras stocks series. In this way, the prediction was obtained by not just using the previous values of the series but also by using information external to the PETR4 series. The values of the selected series were used as features for a prediction stage based on combined neural networks. To evaluate the performance of the system classical measurements were used, however we also introduce a new performance index called Sum of the Losses and Gains (SLG).

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